Romanian passports are seized

ROMANIA: Romanian border police have confiscated the passports of thousands of their countrymen suspected of living and working illegally in the European Union.

In just three days, more than 3,000 Romanians returning home for their summer holidays have forfeited their passports at the frontier, having stayed in the EU's border-free "Schengen zone" for more than the permitted 90 days in six months.

The tougher controls, which the government says will help Romania join the EU on schedule in 2007, have provoked outrage in a country where many families survive on money sent home from relatives working abroad, often illegally. But Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said too many Romanians head for the EU and simply "forget to come home. As a future frontier country of the European Union, Romania is under an obligation to attack illegal immigration and wipe out human trafficking," he said.

Civil rights and business groups were dismayed, however.

"This measure is excessive," said Diana Calinescu, director of the Romanian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

"A person who exceeds the legal sojourn in Italy, for example, should not be deprived of the right to travel to Bulgaria or Serbia."

Florin Pogonaru, president of the Association of Romanian Businessmen, said the restrictions are "degrading and humiliating".

To travel to the EU, Romanians already have to show a return ticket and proof of enough cash to support themselves for the length of their trip. The International Organisation for Migration believes about 900,000 Romanians work abroad, half illegally, while Romania's National Bank estimates that they sent about €2 billion home in 2004.